From drunken reverie to stagecraft on water

A night in which a theater director had a few too many continues to have its denouement in a town of charms

Huang Lei's moment of enlightenment came at a dinner with friends. It was 12 years ago, so memories of what they ate that evening in Beijing have no doubt been lost to time, but Huang knows exactly what they drank - copious amounts of alcohol - and by the end of the convivial gathering he was well and truly drunk.

As he and his friends continued to imbibe and chatter away, sharp images of the town of Wuzhen, 1,270 kilometers away in Zhejiang province, began to float through Huang's mind.

Wuzhen's renown is built on the watery setting of part of the town, crossed and crisscrossed by picturesque bridges, canals, rivers and lakes, with traditional architecture that hearkens back to the town's ancient beginnings.